What is New

28 January 2018

Two
new genera of Bovidae ( Mammalia) - Formal correction for
the
work of Ropiquet and Hassanin

Here is something that I
want to share with all of you who are interested in Nilgiri tahr.

Until 2005, the 3 Species
tahrs were included in the genus Hemitragus. The Himalayan Tahr,
Hemitragus jemlahicus (Smith, 1826), the Nilgiri Tahr, Hemitragus
hylocrius ( Ogilby 1838), and the Arabian tahr, Hemitragus jayakari (
Thomas 1894). It was Ropiquet& Hassanin ( 2005), based on
their study of mitochondrial and nuclear markers, who, provided strong
evidence for the polyphyly of Hemitragus: H. Jemlahicus was found to
be associated with Capra( goats), H. Hylocrius with Ovis( sheep) and
H. Jayakari with Ammotragus lervia( audad). Two new genera were
erected. Arabitragus for Arabian tahr and Nilgiritragus for Nilgiri
tahr. However these two nomina are nomenclaturally unavailable (nomina
nuda) for missing “a description or definition that states in words
characters that are purported to differentiate the taxon"(Article
13.1.1 of the code). The researchers have therefore published a formal
correction to the original work. read it HERE

Intentional
fire spreading by a bird? Seems implausible. Well, this is exactly
what Australian researchers have found out, banking on indigenous
knowledge. The researchers have documented indigenous and
non-indigenous observations of intentional fire spreading by fire
foraging raptor Black Kite ( Milvus migrans), Whistling Kite(Haliastur
sphenurus) and Brown Falcon( Falco berigora) in tropical
Australian savannas. Obviously there is more to fire than what meets
the eye. The paper appears in the latest issue of Journal of
Ethanobiology

Understanding
forest fire history can help keep forests healthy Intenational

For
nearly a century, forest fires have been viewed by scientists and
the public as dangerous and damaging to the ecosystem. However,
recent research has shown that forest fires are vital to maintaining
healthy forests.

"Many
forest ecosystems are fire-dependent, meaning that in order to
maintain their health and vibrancy, they must be subjected to fire
on a regular basis," said Stambaugh, who is a member of the
Missouri Tree-Ring Laboratory at MU. "By understanding how fire
has maintained forest ecosystems in the past, we can determine the
best ways to use fire to maintain those forests in the future. The
history of fire in America also is the history of humans on this
continent. Humans have been here for more than 12,000 years and
everywhere we see humans move, we see fires follow or be altered.
This has been a constant for so long that forest ecology has become
dependent on these fires, if they already weren't before humans
arrived. However, many parts of the U.S., especially in the eastern
half of the continent, have not experienced forest fires in more
than 150 years because humans have worked hard to prevent those
fires. Many of those forests are now suffering because of the lack
of fire to help renew the ecology."

Details
appear in the latest issue of journal Fire
ecology

1 June 2016

In
grassland areas prescribed grassland burning is a must to maintain
ecosystem says Kansas State University researchers

Here
is something that is bound to be of great interest to wildlife
managers managing grassland ecosystem.

Kansas
State University researchers advise an increase in prescribed
grassland burning to maintain ecosystem. They have found a
three-year absence of fire is the tipping point for the tallgrass
prairie ecosystem and advise an increase in burning.The study applied 40 years of data collected at Konza Prairie
Biological Station, a tallgrass prairie jointly owned by Kansas
State University and The Nature Conservancy and satellite fire maps
of the Flint Hills from 2000 to 2010.

Managed
by the university's Division of Biology, Konza Prairie has more than
50 sections of land called watersheds -- because they are
partitioned based on water flow -- that are burned at varying
frequencies -- from annually to every 20 years -- since the land was
donated in 1971. The areas of the station with one- and two-year
fire intervals have minimal large shrubs compared to a nearby
watershed that is burned at three-and-a-half-year intervals and that
has lost 40 percent of its area to shrub expansion.

"In
this area, if we completely exclude fire, the landscape can go from
tallgrass prairie to a cedar forest in as little as 30-40
years," said John Briggs, director of Konza Prairie and one of
the authors of the study. "Once it gets to that point, we are
not confident that fire alone is going to bring that back."

Briggs
added “There is always a conflict to burning," "Most
people think that the remaining tallgrass prairie should be a
fenced-off preserve. They think that it will take care of itself,
but this system is fire derived and historically fire maintained.
Aside from the sustainable and ecological aspects, it is critical to
people's livelihoods and necessary to ranching communities."

Details appear in the latest issue of journal Rangeland Ecology
and Management

17 May 2016

6th WORLD
CONGRESS ON MOUNTAIN UNGULATES - Third announcement

6th WORLD CONGRESS ON MOUNTAIN
UNGULATES and 5th INTERNATIONAL
SYMPOSIUM ON MOUFLON

Organized by the Ministry of Interior with the
cooperation of Frederick University and the Caprinae Specialist
Group of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN

AUGUST
28 - SEPTEMBER 1, 2016,Nicosia, Cyprus

Message
from Dr. Eleftherios Hadjisterkotis

1. Participation
fee is free for all the scientists or students who are going to
submit an abstract for an oral or poster presentation until the 31st of
June 2016, according to the instructions in the web site: mountain
ungulates.

2.
The manager of the Nicosia City Centre Hotel informed us that after
the 31st of June the hotel is closing for
renovations. The new venue hotel isCleopatra,
situated in the most central location in the city Centre of Nicosia
and 6 minutes’ walk from the old part of the city. Cleopatra is
within walking distance of the main business, nightlife venues,
cafes and shopping centers, government offices, museums, ancient
churches, medieval building and galleries, with superb
accommodations and great service in a relaxing environment. More details

Dr.
Eleftherios Hadjisterkotis

Environment
Officer

Ministry
of the Interior, Nicosia Cyprus

On
behalf of the Organizing and the Scientific Committee

7 May 2016

6th
WORLD CONGRESS ON MOUNTAIN UNGULATES – SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT

Message
from Dr Eleftherios Hadjisterkotis, Chairman of the
Organizing Committee

Participation fee is free for the scientists who are going to
submit an abstract for an oral or poster presentation until the 31st of
June 2016.All other participants who are not going to
submit an abstract please follow the instructions below.

PREREGISTRATION:

€150
for non-students (early registration fee until June 31st 2016,
€200 from July 1st until August 29), and €100
for students (official confirmation is requested). Registration fees
will cover all administrative cost, printing of conference
materials, refreshment breaks, three conference lunches, all social
events including a cocktail party and the conference dinner, a full
day trip to the center of Pafos Forest the habitat of the Cyprus
Mouflon, a visit to cedar valley, and a visit to the historic Kykko
monastery. The fee for accompanying persons is €100. It includes a
cocktail party, the official dinner, ladies program in Nicosia, and
one day excursion with lunch, etc.

2 May 2016

Convincing
evidence to show that drones can add substantial value to
long-term ecological monitoring by providing low cost, high
resolution data

Seeing
the forest from drones: Testing the potential of lightweight drones
as a tool for long-term forest monitoring

Here
is a paper that provides Convincing evidence that drones can add
substantial value to long-term ecological monitoring by providing
low cost, high resolution data.

Long-term
ecological monitoring has contributed significantly towards
advancements in theoretical and applied ecology. The flip side is
that the costs to maintain a long-term monitoring site are enormous.
Here the researchers used a lightweight drone to map in detail
forest canopy structure across a 20-ha subtropical forest dynamics
plot. They examined the added benefit of incorporating drone-derived
variables in explaining local variation in both stand and species
measures. The researchers were convinced thatDrone-derived canopy
variables contributed substantially towards explaining spatial
patterns in biodiversity. Species with different light
requirements responded to canopy variables supporting gap dynamics
successional theories and Lightweight drone technologies offer great
potential for long-term ecological studies.

In mule deer (Odocoileus
hemionus), reproduction patterns closely follow the cycles of
plant growth in their habitat. Research led by David Stoner of Utah
State University using NASA satellite data has demonstrated that
tracking vegetation from space can help wildlife managers predict
when does will give birth to fawns. Researchers claim they can
forecast the timing of fawning seasons based on vegetation. With
satellite data they track when vegetation greens up and how
productive it is compared to drought or wet years.

The tool used by researchers is called the
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is a measure of
the "greenness" of the landscape. It measures how plants
absorb and reflect light -- the more infrared light is reflected,
the healthier the vegetation. So by measuring the greenness of the
mule deer habitat, scientists were able to mark the beginning and
peak of the plant growing season -- and the fawning season.

29 March 2016

Next
big advancement in drones is round the corner

Exciting advances in drones is round
the corner. Drones powered by hydrogen cells are undergoing trials
in UK. The fuel cells were developed by the firm 'Intelligent
Energy'. The drones powered by hydrogen cells can fly up to two
hours compared to half an hour of most drones now. The refueling
takes only a few minutes without any hassles, compared to hours
needed to charge the battery pack. The prototype is expected to be
developed in to full fledged model by the end of the year. A major
manufacturer of drones has already obtained commercial rights for
the new fuel cells. So, guys, if you are planning to buy a new drone
please bear the latest development in mind before you take the
plunge.

16 March 2016

Targeted
gene flow as a tool for conservation

Ella Kelly and Ben L. Phillips
from School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne
argues thattargeted
gene flow, which involves moving individuals with favorite traits
to areas where these traits would have a conservation benefit, could
have much broader application in conservation. Across a species’
range there may be long-standing geographic variation in traits or
variation that may have
rapidly developed in response to a threatening process. Rather
than simply assuming persistent populations are there purely because
of attributes of their environment, decision makers should carefully
consider the possibility that these populations persist because of
genetic variation in relevant traits. The persistent populations can
be exploited for both targeted gene flow and reintroduction efforts.
Targeted gene flow could be used to promote natural resistance to
threats to increase species resilience. They go on to add that
targeted gene flow is a currently under appreciated strategy in
conservation. Targeted gene flow may provide novel solutions
to a number of conservation problems across a wide range of species
and threatening processes.

Targeted
gene flow for conservation

Ella
Kelly and Ben L. Phillips

Conservation Biology, Volume 30, Issue
2, pages 259–267, April
2016

14th March 2016

6th
World Congress on Mountain Ungulates and 5th International Symposium
on Mouflon. The website is ready

The
researchers say “The fear large carnivores inspire, independent of
their direct killing of prey, may cause cascading effects down food
webs potentially critical for conserving ecosystem function,
particularly by affecting large herbivores and mesocarnivores. Till
now the presumption has remained experimentally untested.

Here
the researchers show that experimentally manipulating fear itself in
free-living mesocarnivore (raccoon) populations using month-long
playbacks of large carnivore vocalizations caused just such
cascading effects, reducing mesocarnivore foraging to the benefit of
the mesocarnivore’s prey, which in turn affected a competitor and
prey of the mesocarnivore’s prey.The researchers by experimentally restoring the fear of large
carnivores in their study system, where most large carnivores have
been extirpated, succeeded in reversing the mesocarnivore’s
impacts.

The
researchers’ signs off saying “We suggest that our results
reinforce the need to conserve large carnivores given the
significant “ecosystem service” the fear of them provides.”

15 February 2016

Use
of Twitter as an effective communication tool in conservation

Using
Twitter to communicate conservation science from a professional
conference

I read this interesting paper today. The researchers examined the
feasibility of using twitter for scholarly discussion, and extending
and diversifying the scope of audiences reached. They examined live
tweeting as a means of communicating conservation science at the
2013 International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB). One
drawback noticed was that the groups often reached through live
tweeting were not the presenters’ intended audiences. Policy
makers and government and non-governmental organizations were rarely
reached (0%, 4%, and 6% of audience, respectively). Much more work
is needed to fine-tune the whole process of delivery. Over half the
presenters believed the tweets about their talks were effective.

The
researchers recommend that presenters who want their science to be
communicated accurately and broadly through Twitter should provide
Twitter-friendly summaries that incorporate relevant hashtags and
usernames.

The
scientist caution that if Twitter does not accurately convey science
due to the inherent brevity of this media, misinformation could
cascade quickly through social media.

22 January 2016

Wildlife
Crime Tech Challenge – Top slot for Indian IT firm

The Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge is an
initiative of USAID, in partnership with National Geographic, the
Smithsonian Institution and TRAFFIC. They have announced the winners
of its competition for designing new, innovative solutions to the
most intractable issues in the fight against wildlife trafficking.